


So Here We Are

by scmvl



Category: Marvel and the Bloodstones
Genre: F/M, Steve Rogers/Vandom Bloodstone - Freeform, Steve/Vandom, The Bloodstones/The Tower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 01:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15183407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scmvl/pseuds/scmvl
Summary: A new face comes into Vandom’s Physics 3 class. She can’t help but feel intrigued. And neither can he.





	So Here We Are

**Author's Note:**

> Written purely for my sister. But if you happen to have found this, hello.

Your day started off normal.

You came into your lecture with exactly ten minutes to spare. Even though you got there slightly early, a majority of people had already been seated, and were preparing to take notes for class. Feeling the side of your backpack to make sure your laptop was inside, you walked down the steps on the left side of the hall to make your way to the row you usually sit in. You held your longboard above your head as you scooted past everyone to get to your spot: the seat right in the middle.

This class had particularly been your favourite, since all of your pals happened to have the class with you. Next to you was your best friend and sister, Vaint, her boyfriend Bucky, and the entire gang: Juliet, Shawn, Gus, Carlton. In the row below, Karen, Matt, Foggy, and Frank. And finally, in the row below them: Tony, Pepper, Bruce, Nat, Sam, and god knows how many else. 

Your friend group had gotten incredibly big, practically quadrupling in size by the time your first year at Fordham ended. Being an academically elite, yet goofy group of students, the University’s personnel had placed all of you in the same hall, the biggest hall in the building. 

-

“I say we call ourselves...The Fortress,” Shawn sighed as he looked down the entire hall. “This entire hall is ours.”

__

“Damn right it is. And you know what, Shawn?” Gus slammed his hand down on Shawn’s shoulder, to which he winced. “The Fortress sounds good.”

__

-

All of The Fortress greeted you quietly, while Sam gave a scolding look at you.

__

“What is it now, Wilson? Always giving me the same look,” you’re throwing him mock sass as you prop your board against the row in front of you, and unzip your bag. A lock of your hair flies into your face, and you blow it away quickly.

You slide your laptop out carefully, so as to not screw up some of the papers that lay loose inside. “As if I’ll ever get to class at the same time you do.”

Sam chews on the end of his pen while he over-dramatically chastises you. “Aren’t we all in the same damn hall? Why do you get here last? That’s all I’m saying.”

Tony, from two rows down, has shades on, and his arm around Pepper. He turns around and calls out to us. “Maybe she’s late because she has a secret boyfriend none of us know about. And she meets up with him every day before class to sneak in a couple of minutes of -”

Vaint has a smile on her face as she tears out a piece of notebook paper, casually removes the perforation, wads it up, and chucks it at Tony’s face. It hits him right on the forehead, and you can’t help but snort. “Tony, please don’t reduce my sister to that kind of person, thanks.”

He shakes his head, and we can all practically see the eyeroll behind those ridiculously red lensed sunglasses. “Just saying.”

Bucky takes a sip from his coffee, and places it down on the floor below him, wincing visibly in his face as he swallows. “Shit.”

“I thought you didn’t like coffee,” you chuckle at the pain and disgust on his face as you pull out your notes from last lecture and lean back in your seat.

“Damn straight I don’t,” he looks at you, and the bags on his eyes are practically bulging out. “I had to study for a Math test last night, and I didn’t get any sleep at all.”

You smile at him sympathetically. “Ouch.”

Our eyes are suddenly pulled to the front of the room as the professor starts the lecture. We all grow quiet, and are intently taking notes. But just as he starts to introduce another topic, the door to the right of the classroom creaks open, and someone enters. It’s not unusual for someone to show up late to class, so none of your classmates are really bothered by it, but out of habit we all turn our heads to see who came in.

It’s someone you don’t recognize, but since its a class of around 300, could you be blamed for not knowing this guy anyway? He’s blond, and you could tell from the distance between you and him that he was pretty tall. One of his hands is tucked into the pocket of his slacks, and the other is curled around a backpack strap that rested on his shoulder.

All of our eyes peeled away from him and back to the professor, but your eyes stayed glued on the man as he shuffled into a row all the way near the back. After forcing yourself to turn away from him and pay attention, you see Vaint and Bucky out of your peripherals, looking at you, trying not to laugh.

“What?”

“Uh, now is not the time to be focusing on Mister Big, Blond, and Beautiful over there.”

“Shut the hell up,” you hiss your reply to Bucky, who is chuckling quietly, and hit his arm. He’s still laughing as he grabs his pen and starts jotting down notes quickly, pausing only to take sips of coffee. 

_

 

All of the students are flooding out of the lecture hall. We all greet each other, saying that we’ll meet up again later tonight in the hall anyway, and part ways. Still, you and Vaint are the last ones to leave the room, since you want to avoid hitting people with your longboard on accident, and Vaint felt that it would be rude to not wait for you.

What a coincidence - the boy you had been studying earlier is one of the few others left in the classroom. You still can’t see all of the details of his face at this distance, but that doesn’t stop you from continuing to stare, settling for analyzing the way that he moves and even holds himself. His back is incredibly straight, and he simply oozes confidence. The expression he has is one that is warm, and welcoming, but also is one of someone who likes to keep to himself.

Suddenly, he glances at you. And you quickly look away, your face heating up in embarrassment at being caught. Your eyes are glued to the ground as you step up the stairs quickly and leave your lecture hall, Vaint trailing behind you. The laugh that she lets out once the door closes is louder than the ones she was stifling in class, now that we’re both outside.

“To your credit, he’s definitely your type,” she teases you, waggling her eyebrows and plastering a smile on her face.

You roll your eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

“That better have been a ‘yeah yeah’ in agreement and not in a sarcastic tone. I know your type so well, Van, you and I can read each other like an open book.”

“Definitely,” you’re trying to listen, especially as Vaint starts going off about the Math test she helped her boyfriend prepare all night for, but you can’t help yourself from turning around and sneaking a peek at the retreating boy behind you, heading in the opposite direction.

-

After a lunch with Vaint, that was eaten in a comfortable silence due to both of you preparing for the classes you need to, you bid your sister good luck as she heads off, and decide to spend the rest of your time surfing on the internet with your phone. Your laptop was completely drained from class earlier, and now your phone is all you had left. Still, you didn’t have class for another hour, and so you decided to head over to the coffee shop that was near your building. You hoped that maybe some tea would drown the butterflies that were fluttering in your stomach, for some unknown, yet known, reason.

As soon as you walk in, you’re surprised, but not truly surprised, to see who other than him, alone at a table in the corner. It’s basically impossible to find truly anybody on campus, given its size, unless you have a number you can contact. Yet here he was. And here an opportunity was, as well.

You stand in line, order your tea, wait for it to be ready, and pick it up. Chai tea, and creamer. Simple, yet fragrant, and absolutely delicious. For a second you were too busy thinking about your tea that you forgot he was even in the room, but you snapped out if it, and put your bag down at an empty table.

Approaching him, you glance at the table around him. His textbook is laying open, and his eyes are scanning the pages. You purse your lips nervously, and muster up the courage to speak. “Hey, is this seat taken?”

He looks up at you, his blue eyes taking a moment to study you. Then he peeks behind you and stares at the empty table with your bag on it. You’re growing flustered and are just about ready to give up your plan when his eyes are planted back on you and a small smile grows on his face. 

“No. Go ahead.”

A breath that you didn’t even realize you were holding flies out from your lungs as you pull out the chair, setting down your longboard quietly, and sitting just a little too quickly. The grip you have on your cup of tea is getting tighter, and you can tell because you can see the liquid rising in the paper cup. 

You watch in silence as he continues to read, scooting the book closer to him to allow you more room on the table. His hands move from the corner of the page to the highlighter that rested next to it, uncapping it and marking down something in his notebook. 

“I’m Vandom,” you say suddenly, breaking the silence. 

The boy shifts his attention from his book to you, but doesn’t say anything right away. You’re about to ask him what his name is, but then debate against doing so, because by the way he’s acting, he might not want to be friends. But before you can -

“Steve,” he replies shortly. He sounds quiet, and subdued, which is a surprise, considering the way he looks and carries himself. But you like it.

You feel a little more comfortable now, and smile at him, and also at the fact that you finally know his name.”I noticed you had Physics 3 too, with Mr. Jackson?”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“How do you like the class?”

“It’s okay,” he shrugs, still maintaining eye contact with you. “It’s not my favourite subject, but I’m not struggling or anything. I don’t mind it.”

“I wish I could say the same. I’ve been doing pretty good, but I think I started fading in and out of class around two lectures ago.”

Steve smiles slightly at you, but it grows. You’re charming. He knows he’s screwed. But you don’t know that. “Need any help?”

“I mean it would certainly be awesome, but it’s just the matter of finding the time. I DJ for the campus radio station, and even though I’m friends with all my hallmates, we all major in something different. We’re constantly studying for different things.”

He recognizes you now. You’re Vandom Bloodstone. You’re the said “Lawyer” of “The Fortress”.

At this point, his mind has completely disregarded the textbook that lay in front of him, and you’ve let your tea go cold. You’re asking each other questions, getting to know each other. Still, your heart tingles at the fact that he’s asking so many more questions than you are. He wants to get to know you. 

He certainly doesn’t mind either, considering that he doesn’t like talking about himself much, and on top of that, he certainly likes hearing you speak. Maybe you have that effect on everyone. It might explain why you work at the campus radio station. Or maybe you’re just that charming. To him, it’s probably the latter.  
You quickly glance at your phone, checking the time, and your eyes widen.

“Shit,” you whisper sharply and stand up quickly, running over to the other table and grabbing your bag. You come back to the table and grab your longboard, as well as your tea, and place a hand on his textbook. “I’m late for my next class, I’m so sorry we have to cut this short, but I hope I’ll see you around!”

He wants to reply, but before he can, you’re out the door, dropping your board to the ground and riding your way to your next class. He can’t help but laugh as he watches you throw your tea into the trash can outside, even though you and him both know you barely drank it. 

Once you’re out of sight, he leans back into his chair and sighs. His fingers reach for his pen as he clicks it open and jots down a note on his notebook:

Listen to Campus Radio Station!!!

He looks back down at the textbook in front of him, lightly touching where you rested your hand on the book earlier, and sighs again, even heavier this time. It’s certainly not as interesting as you are.

-

The next day in class, you’re happy to see that Steve is there on time, and this time, you can pick him out of a crowd of 300. His laptop is open in front of him, and the seat to the right of him happened to be empty. Just like you usually do, your hold your longboard above your head, walk to the left side of the lecture hall, and make your way up the stairs, greeting the Fortress as you do.

But today, you walk right past Vaint and Bucky's row.

“What in the - oh hell no,” she's looking wide eyed as you make your way up to a row in the back. “She never leaves us during this class! Especially me, now I’m gonna get bored!”

“Aren’t you a physics major? This is Physics, Vaint,” Bucky is giving her an incredulous look.

“Yeah, but..you know what I mean.”

Steve is looking as you sidestep your way into the row and take a seat next to him. He smiles at you, and you do the same. “Do you always bring that thing everywhere?”

You look over at him, prepared to ask him what he meant, but you follow his gaze, which is transfixed on your longboard. “Yup. It’s faster to get around with it.”

He nods slowly. “I get that.”

Once your laptop is out and ready for note taking, you scan the classroom and make direct eye contact with Sam. He nods, giving you the signature Sam Wilson look, and does the “OK” with his hands. Your eyes widen and you motion for him to stop, panicking when he continues to do so.

“You okay?”

He’s glancing at you. Your eyes slide up to him but you don’t move a muscle. “Yeah, fine!”

You look back down at Sam, who is laughing so hard, he’s grabbing his ribs. You shake your head and lean back in your chair.

-

The two of you go back to the same coffeeshop after class ends, but this time, your board is in your hand. You’re walking with him. And honestly, you didn’t realize how much you liked walking until now. Once you’re there, you ask him questions about the new lesson, and that’s when he cracks open his textbook and pulls out sheets of notebook paper.

Time ticks away as he casually teaches, and also studies with you, the topic, although much slower than Mr. Jackson did. It feels like everything makes sense when it comes out of his mouth, and you’re really grateful you don’t have an afternoon class that day.

Two hours later, you and him are both done teaching each other the parts you didn’t understand. “Thank you for this,” you turn to him and say, gratefully. He had to leave to get to his next class, and you were sad about it. “It was really helpful.”

“Thank you too. And I’m glad I could help. We can continue later if you want.”

“Maybe another day? I have to work the station tonight.”

“That’s fine with me.”

He rips two pieces of paper from his notebook. You both write your phone numbers on them and trade. He smiles at you again and leaves the coffeeshop, and you immediately go to your phone to make a contact for him. You didn’t even realize how many texts you had gotten until now, and big surprise: they’re all from Vaint.

How’s your….date? ;)

Answer me hoe

Are you in his dorm??? 

It’s been an hour, wtf, you need to answer 

Holy shit. Two hours. Now you really have to answer.

You’re freaking out as you finish reading the messages, and quickly type out your reply:

Not a date, stupid. We were helping each other with the Physics crap from today. Nobody went to nobody’s dorm.

While you’re rearranging your things and getting ready to leave the coffeeshop, you get yet another text, and open it quickly.

“Helping each other with Physics” ;)

You roll your eyes as you open the door, throw your board on the ground, and type out a quick answer before boarding back to the station:

STFU.

 

-

 

Later that night, Steve returns to his dorm, dropping his bag on his bed. He rubs his face, tiredly, and then pauses. 

-

“Maybe another day? I have to work the station tonight.”

-

In this one moment, he’s so grateful that he bought an alarm clock with a radio. He scoots down the bed, making his way to the nightstand and quickly turning it on. After changing it to the campus station, his heart tingles and he smiles as he hears the last song end, and your voice fill the room.

You’re talking about the festival Fordham is holding. It’s going to be held at the park near campus, and that everyone is invited. He chuckles as you tell the anybody listening that it’s going to be “a blast!”

He readjusts, sitting on his bed with his back against the wall. He listens to the songs that play, and your voice coming in once in a while to talk about something new in between. Before he can even realize what’s happening, he dozes off to the sound of you speaking. It’s something about the Anthropology department getting a new teacher, but in all honesty, he didn’t care about the content. He cared about you.

By the time he had woken up, you were signing off. He was thankful that he didn’t miss this, since it would be the last time he’d hear your voice for that night, until class the next day. 

“...and I hope it’s been a productive week for everyone so far. This is Vandom Bloodstone, signing off. Goodnight, and sweet dreams, and if you’re still listening, here’s a song that’s perfect for a night like tonight.”

You’re done speaking. And the song is playing. And he wants to turn off the radio, but he knows the tune that’s coming from radio. “So Here We Are” by Bloc Party.

He groans when he realizes that he hadn’t done anything yet to get ready for the next day. As quickly as possible, he changes into his pajamas, and does his homework, although sloppily, throwing it back into his backpack and tucking himself back into his sheets. 

His head hits the pillow, and to his delight, the song isn’t over yet. It’s the last thing thats on his mind when he sleeps that night. That song. And you.

 

-

 

“You look tired,” you comment, as you take your now-usual seat next to Steve, who is dripping in pure exhaustion.

 

Steve, expressionless, looks over at you. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Sarcasm drips from his voice, but having been his friend for a while now, it doesn’t offend you. In fact, you respond with a laugh and a nudge. 

He’s fidgeting with his pen. “I heard you on the radio last night.”

“Oh!” Your eyes light up. “Hope I didn’t sound funny,” you joke, scratching some gunk off the deck of your board, and pulling out your laptop, as routine calls for.

He smiles, shakes his head. “No, you sounded perfect.”

 

You smile back warmly, and look away from him quickly, your cheeks warming at the compliment. “Oh,” you start to try and think of a response, but you simply can’t. What did he mean?

Steve glances at you, rather surprised to hear your uneasiness. You’d grown pretty comfortable with each other by this point. He’s going to ask, but he doesn’t. And that lets him know that he’s just as uneasy as you are. 

“That festival that’s coming up? Which I’m sure you heard last night…when I was talking about it…” you start trailing off, and when Steve doesn’t say anything, you continue quickly. “Well, I was wondering if, maybe you wanted to go together?”

 

There it is again. The tight grip you had on your tea when you first met him is back, except this time, it’s your pen. You’re nervous again. But now, he finds it incredibly endearing, more than anything. He smiles and nods once. “Sure.”

 

The expression in your eyes immediately goes from anxious to excitement. “Great,” you say, mostly because you don’t know what else to say and you hope it’s good enough. Before anything else can be said, however, your professor starts the lecture, and so it’ll have to do.

 

-

 

Weeks are flying by, and the number of posters around campus promoting the festival had grown, almost exponentially. As excited as you were, time seemed to disappear for you, since you had to divide it among your classes, the radio station, and your social life. 

One day, you stayed after when Physics ended to talk to your professor about the next test that was quickly approaching. After clarifying information, you’re about to leave, when Mr. Jackson stops you.

 

“I noticed that you seem to enjoy class a lot more, Vandom,” he says. “And not only that, but you’ve been doing good on your tests so far. Incredibly good job.”

 

You smile, clutching your textbook close to yourself. “Thank you.”

 

Steve is waiting outside the building when you step out.  
Vaint has started getting lunch with everyone else in the Fortress almost everyday, to avoid interrupting date time with Steve.

“They’re not dates, Vaint,” you always tell her.

“You keep telling yourself that, Van,” she always replies with a wink.

You had explained to her multiple times that you didn’t mind if she came along, as Vaint and Bucky met Steve a long time ago. Still, all that had earned you was that same dumb response, and that same dumb wink.

“You look happy,” Steve points out.

 

“Jackson told me I’ve been doing really good. So, yeah, I guess I am happy.”

 

“You should. You’re doing really well.”

 

“So are you,” you look up at him. “We have each other to thank for that.” You smile, and it reaches your eyes.

 

He shoves his hands in the pocket of his jeans. “Well, if you insist I take the credit…”

 

“Hey!” you’re chuckling, as playfully shoving him.

 

-

 

It’s finally the night of the festival.

Vaint sits on your bed, watching as you find clothes to wear. She had gotten ready a while ago in her own dorm and had come over so she could walk over with you. You hold up two dresses, and she studies them.

 

“The one on the right,” she tells you, assuredly.

 

You take a moment to study the dress she chooses, and agree. You slip it on and tell me that I made a good choice. She nods, and stretches across your bed, telling you “of course she did!”

Your eyes are glued to your phone as the two of you walk to the park, texting Steve where to meet up, and Vaint reads over your shoulder.

 

“Stop being so nosy!” You laugh, taking a step away. She follows you like a magnet, trying to look at your phone screen.

 

She nudges you, “I just can’t help it!”

 

“Hey, Van. Hey, Vaint.”

 

You twist around to see Steve standing there, and smile widely. Then, from your left, you hear Vaint.

 

“Oh, that’s Bucky over there! I’m going to go...” she’s side stepping away, awkwardly. “...tell him I love him!”

You glance at behind her, seeing the empty grass before me, and roll your eyes. Bucky isn’t there yet. Still, you nod, and she smiles at you, and then Steve. “You two have fun, ‘kay?”

 

When she’s gone, you turn your attention back to Steve. He’s dressed in jeans, and a black button-up that looks incredibly good on him. You find yourself distracted by the material that stretches tautly across his broad shoulders.

 

“You look good,” Steve compliments quietly, and it’s your turn to sense his nervousness. He doesn’t often hand out compliments like that, so it’s a little awkward.

 

You smile, blushing half from the compliment, and half from the fact that how good he looked in that goddamn button-up made you basically too braindead to say anything.

“Thanks. You look good too.”

 

He mutters a thank you, and before the silence can get anymore awkward, he motions behind you, to the festivities that have long since kicked off. “Shall we?”

 

The two of you go down the long row of carnival games, competing to see who can knock down the most blocks, or land the most rings around bottlenecks. And at one point, Steve does so well at shooting a water gun that he can earn any prize at the booth. 

He looks down at you. “Which one do you want?”

 

“What?”

“The prizes. Go ahead and pick one. Lady’s choice.” 

He flashes you the most handsome smile, and you feel nervous yet again. In order to suppress the butterflies, you look towards the prizes, and chuckle at the options. A monkey holding cymbals, a rubber snake, and an incredible amount of stuffed animals.

“I’ll take...that bear.”

The lady working the booth widens her eyes, but chuckles as she takes it down from the rack and hands it to you.

It’s huge, and you seem to almost disappear behind it, given its size. You tell her thank you, but you’re not sure she heard it since the bear is obscuring her view of you. Steve smiles down at you, unable to pull his eyes away from you as he tells the lady thank you as well, and that’s when the two of you leave.

 

“Thanks, Steve,” you tell said boy.

 

“You’re welcome. That bear is the same size as you,” Steve comments.

 

“Okay, maybe not that big,” you reason, pausing for a moment to readjust your grip on the large toy.

 

You’re both pretty tired out from the excitement of the games, so you find a spot on a small hill a comfortable distance away from the festival—close enough to be illuminated by both the lights of New York City and the lights of the festival itself, but far enough that the noises are quieter, and all you can hear is the city, and him breathing. You’re sitting next to each other, content with the silence as you study the festival from a distance.

“You know, I saw some people that I didn’t even know went here,” you say, laying down on the grass to watch the night sky. You can’t see any stars because of the light pollution, but you do see the blinking light of an airplane as it glides across the sky. And it feels absolutely perfect.

“It’s a big campus.” Steve lays down with you. Silence reigns between the two of you once more, and you feel your eyelids growing heavy. You roll onto your stomach, scooting closer to him as you glance at your teddy bear, which you’ve propped up into a sitting position.

 

“You gonna name it?” You glance at Steve, who had noticed you looking at the bear.

 

“Hm…Cuddles, maybe? Or Olly. Maybe Frank, or - ”

“No no no. Cuddles is good.”

 

You smile, prepared to make a grammar joke because you just can’t help yourself, but when you turn your attention back to Steve, the words die in your throat. He’s watching you, but in a different kind of way. His eyes are soft as they roam over the details of your face, and they carry a sense of fondness with them. It makes flowers grow in your lungs, and even though they’re absolutely beautiful, that doesn’t mean you can’t breathe.

 

The sound of your heart beating in your ears slows down, and your breath hitches, eyes sliding down to settle on his lips. And before you can chicken out, you lean down, lips meeting his in a gentle kiss. 

It’s warm and slow and the best thing you think you’ve ever experienced. What you both have been wanting is finally here. It finally happened. And for both of you, the moment is absolutely one of your favorites. 

The pressure in your chest recedes, and you start to pull away, but he steals a few more quick kisses, and you laugh. You wrap an arm around his stomach and nuzzle his side, looking back at him to check his cheeks, which are red, without a doubt. He thinks you can’t see it in the shade of the tree you’re sitting under, but the light is hitting him just right.

The smile on your face doesn’t leave, and it doesn’t feel like it will anytime soon. You don’t have to look at Steve to know he’s in the same position.

 

“Cuddles are good,” you tell him, though it’s muffled because you’re still snuggled into his side.

 

He hears you perfectly well, and he laughs, immediately catching onto your stupidly adorable joke. His fingers lightly run along your back, invoking a tingling sensation that emits a quiet, content sigh from you. And it's music to his ears. 

“Yeah, they are.”


End file.
